When the stories are published dissecting Wednesday night's Republican presidential debate, former resident and senator of Pennsylvania, Rick Santorum, will hardly get a mention. Sure he barely registers on, well, anyone's radar other than ours and a few other PA-covering blogs, but give the man his due. He came, he saw, he debated and here's a quick take on what he had to say:

NBC's Brian Williams asked Santorum about his devout Catholicism, the religion's effort to give back to the poor and where the poor fit in among Republicans.

"There is no one in the 12 years I was in the United State Senate who did more to work on poverty than Rick Santorum," Santorum said. He then went on to discuss his work on the welfare reform bill in the 1990s. "We didn’t pass it to cut money, we didn’t pass it to punish anybody, we changed the welfare system because it was punishing people…it was creating a culture of dependency and we went out and talked to the American public and said trust us to end this federal entitlement, put a work requirement in place, put a time limit on welfare…and we will transform it from a dependency system to a transitional system."

Later, Santorum was asked about homeland security but he skirted it to circle back to a conversation that had just been had about Texas Gov. Rick Perry's executive order that all teenage girls receive the HPV-vaccine.

"How about parental rights being more important than states rights?" Santorum said. "I would expect this from President Obama, not from someone who is calling himself a conservative governor."

During a series of questions on immigration, Santorum was asked about what to do with the 11 million illegal immigrants currently in the United States. Santorum didn't quite answer, instead saying it's a conversation for after the border is secured. Earlier, he discussed the need to encourage immigration legally: "We have to have a program that says if you're going to come to this country come according to the rules, it's a good first step that the first thing you do here is a legal act, not an illegal act."

Santorum was in his wheelhouse -- no not on social conservative issues -- but on America's involvement in foreign affairs. During a question on Libya, he spoke most passionately while also invoking, albeit a bit strangely, the namesake of the forum venue.

"The bottom line is that Ronald Reagan was committed to America being a force for good around the world…we believe we can spread our vision to the rest of the world and make this country safer as a result of it," he said.

Then, in criticizing Obama's tepidness about getting involved in the Libyan revolution, Santorum said this: Ronald Reagan would have melted like the old Wicked Witch of the West before he would have allowed that to happen."

In a post debate interview with MSNBC's Chris Matthews, Santorum said, perhaps a bit bitterly, that he was only asked a four or five questions.

"Rick Santorum: The focus on Bachmann during the June New Hampshire debate and the August Iowa tilt overshadowed two solid performances by the former Pennsylvania Senator. Santorum isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but for social conservatives looking for someone who is with them on every issue, he might well be the guy. Santorum came across as knowledgeable and credible — two adjectives that any candidate would like to have describe a debate performance."

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Bachmann was criticizing Obama's leading from behind absence of declared strategy. I think Santorum was saying, "I have a strategy. I want to kill Qaddaffi." I think Bachmann would agree. There's no real disagreement there. Just a difference in how they are engaging on the issue: Bachmann to attack Obama, Santorum to state his principles.

I can't believe Rick Santorum actually thinks he has a chance of going anywhere. He's worse than Tim Pawlenty. If you looked at his positions on paper I suppose you might say hey, he's a decent republican. But there's something about the guy himself and his delivery that completely sucks the energy out of the room. He's essentially a "me too" candidate with nothing unique to offer.

Posted By: Chris | Sep 8, 2011 12:23:43 AM

Yes, Chris, let's not worry about positions. Instead, look for that "something about the guy himself" or his "delivery".

That was the thinking in '08. How's that working out for ya?

Posted By: Matador | Sep 8, 2011 8:50:39 AM

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